Block-8 Non Fictional Prose

Unit 1 Amrit Rai: Premchand: His Life And Times Translation: Harish Trivedi
 Amrit Rai was born in 3 September 1921 and died in 14 August 1996.
 He was an Indian writer, poet and biographer in both the Hindi and Urdu styles of the Hindustani language.
 He was the son of Munshi Premchand, a pioneer of modern Urdu literature and of Hindi literature.
 Amrit Rai made his literary debut with novel Beej in 1952 and went on to write an acclaimed biography of his
father, Premchand, Kalam ka Sipahi (1970), which later won him the Sahitya Akademi award for 1963.
 He also co-edited Chitthi Patri (1962), a two-volume book on the letters of Premchand along with his biographer,
Madan Gopal.
 In 1982, he donated a collection of his father's 236 letters to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML)
at Teen Murti House, Delhi.
 Rai died in Allahabad, in August 1996 at the age of 75. He had suffered a paralytic stroke earlier in March.
 Premchand: His Life And Times Translation: Harish Trivedi: Summary
 Munshi Premchand (1880-1936) is easily the greatest novelist and short story writer in Hindi and Amrit Rai's
biography of his father is said to be the first authentic, dispassionate biography of the writer.
 It was written in Hindi in 1962 and later an abridged version of it [The original is 640 pages] was translated
into English by Harish Trivedi and published in 1982.
 In addition to the Introduction, the chapters are 2, 12, 19, 25 and - 33. These chapters bring up important
concerns in the writer's life and
 Writings and his discovery of the power of the pen.
 The original Hindi title of the biography was Premchand: Kalam ka Sipahi. The subtitle, literally translated,
would be A Soldier with a Pen'.
 Harish Trivedi had come up with ·The Pen as the Sword but both he and Amrit Rai rejected it as it sounded a
little corny.
 The introduction begins with simplicity of Munshi Premchand even when he had become a great writer. He
never assumed airs. This utter simplicity remained with him till the very end.
 There was a photograph of Premchand who was seated along side his wife. He has a cap made of some thick
material and is wearing a kurta and dhoti and canvas shoes on his feet with laces tied irregularly. There is a
big hole in the left shoe through which his toes can be seen protruding. Premchand. half-smiling, seems totally
unaware of the state of his shoes. This photograph speaks for the writer's utter simplicity
 Hindi satirist Hari Shankar Parsai has written a piece entitled ·Premchand ke Phate Joote on this
photograph.
 Chapter 2: Premchand discovers the power of his pen
 Outline Summary:
 In this chapter he talks about Nawab's childhood pranks at his village Lamahi, bringing down mangoes, ripe
and unripe from the trees playing with Kazaki, a mail runner who would tell him and other children tales of all
kinds.
 At 8 Premchand starts learning Urdu and Persian is fond of sugar cane
 When he was 8, his mother died after a long illness.
 Premchand felt isolated, and His father remarried but Premchand received little affection from his stepmother.
 Mother's loss was reflected in Premchand’s writings.
 His first piece or writing is about a philandering uncle, who gels beaten by the villagers for trying to molest a
Lower caste woman of the house.
 It was a farce on a bachelor, who falls in love with a low-caste woman. The character was based on
Premchand's uncle.
 Nawab writes a burlesque in the form of a play on the incident. that proves effective in sending the uncle away
bag and baggage discovers the power of the pen his pen to be his shield as well as his sword.
 Chapter 12 -Happy days are back again at Gorakhpur, 1916, both personally and as a nation.
 Outline Summary:
 This chapter tells us of important changes and developments in Premchand’s thinking.
 In 1895, he was married at the age of 15, while still studying in the ninth grade. The match was arranged by
his maternal step-grandfather. The girl was from a rich landlord family and was older than Premchand, who
found her quarrelsome and not good-looking.
 His father died in 1897 after a long illness. He managed to pass the matriculation exam with second division
(below 60% marks).
  In 1899, he once went to a bookshop to sell one of his collected books. There, he met the headmaster of a
missionary school, who offered him a job as a teacher, at a monthly salary of ₹18.
 He also took up the job of tutoring a student at a monthly fee of ₹5.
 Premchand first wrote under the pseudonym "Nawab Rai".
 His first short novel was Asrar-e-Ma'abid ("Secrets of God's abode", Devasthan Rahasya in Hindi),
which explores corruption among the temple priests and their sexual exploitation of poor women.
 Chapter 19 All about Rangbhoomi
 In 1924, he wrote Rangbhoomi, in which has a blind beggar called Surdas as its tragic hero.
 Rangbhoomi: The Arena of Life is a Hindi language novel by Premchand.
 The novel features an idealist protagonist inspired by Gandhian values.
 The novel talk about a blind beggar, Soordas. against the acquisition of his ancestral land.
 Soordas is the character with the most significant Gandhian influence. He is simple and fearless, and
personifies the protest against industrialisation in his village.
 In March 1930, Premchand launched a literary-political weekly magazine titled Hans, aimed at inspiring the
Indians to mobilise against the British rule.
 Premchand was charged of plagiarism. Premchand defends himself.
 in Nirmala (1925)
 it is a novel dealing with the dowry system in India.
 Pratigya ("The Vow")
 It dealt with the subject of widow remarriage.
 Gaban (1928)
 It is focusing on the middle class' greed.
 Chapter 33: Premchand is deeply disturbed over the widening gulf between Hindi and Urdu.

Unit2: Bama (Faustina Mary Fatima Rani): Karukku

Translation: Laxmi Holmstrom
 Bama was born in 1958.
 He is also known as Bama Faustina Soosairaj,
 She is a Tamil Dalit feminist, teacher and novelist.
 Her autobiographical novel Karukku (1992) talks about the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christian
women in Tamil Nadu.
 She subsequently wrote two more novels, Sangati (1994) and Vanmam (2002) along with three collections of
short stories: Kusumbukkaran (1996) and Oru Tattvum Erumaiyum (2003), 'Kandattam'(2009).
 Early life and family
 .Bama was born in 1958 as Faustina Mary Fatima Rani in a Roman Catholic family belonging to the Paraiyar
community.
 Later she accepted 'Bama' as her pen name.
 Her father, Susairaj was employed in the Indian Army and her mother was named Sebasthiamma. She is the
sister of famous Dalit writer Raj Gauthaman.
 Bama's grandfather had converted from Hinduism to Christianity.
 Bama's ancestors were from the Dalit community and worked as agricultural labourers.
 She became a schoolteacher for very poor girls, following which she served as a nun for seven years.
 She chose to take the holy orders to escape caste-based discrimination, and also to further her mission of helping
in the advancement of poor Dalit girls.
 Writing career
 After joining the nunnery, Bama found out that there was a separate training centre for Dalit Catholics.
Angered by the poor conditions of the Dalit Catholic training centre, she left the nunnery after seven years.
 She finished her studies and joined as a teacher at a Catholic Christian school. During her teaching experience,
she found out that the Catholic nuns oppressed the Dalit children and teachers.
 This was when she began writing. With the encouragement of a friend, she wrote on her childhood
experiences.
 These experiences formed the basis for her first novel, Karukku published in 1992.
 When the novel was published, Bama was not allow to live in her village and was not allowed to enter it for
the next seven months.
 Karukku was critically acclaimed and won the Crossword Book Award in 2000.
 It has become a textbook in various courses like Marginal Literature, Literature in Translation,
Autobiography, Feminist Literature and Dalit Literature, across many universities.
 Bama got a loan and set up a school for Dalit children in Uttiramerur.
 Bama's Karukku has been translated to English and Kusumbukkaran and Sangati to French.
 Bama recently published an essay - Single By Choice: happily unmarried women!, a collection of 13 essays
by unmarried women in India talking about their singlehood. In her essay she talks about her choice of being a
single professional Dalit woman in India. While she did grow up with dreams of marrying a man and having a
girl child, she gradually chose being a single woman because according to her "the institution and structure
of marriage and family as they exist today, are not woman-friendly at all." She also says, "I liked being
myself; I didn’t want to lose my self, my being, my freedom and identity, for anyone."
 Bama's novels focus on caste and gender discrimination.
 They portray caste-discrimination practised in Christianity and Hinduism. In an interview, Bama has said that
she writes because she considers it her duty and responsibility to share the experiences of her people.
 Famous Works:
 Karukku (1992)
 Sangati (1994)
 Kusumbukkaran (1996)
 Vanmam (2002)
 Oru Tattavum Erumaiyum (2003)
 Kondattam (2009)
 All of her works have been translated into English and French.
 Karukku: Summary
 It is an Autobiographical Novel
 Written in Tamil
 Published in 1992.
 Translated into English by Lakshmi Holmstorm.
 Consists nine chapters and a preface.
 In preface Bama compares karukku to her life.
 Won the Crossword Award for Fiction in 2001.
 Summary
 Chapter-I
 Describes village - no development - many caste and communities live. Criticises how the places are
named - upper class enjoys all luxuries...
 Tells about a person called Bondan -- lives by his wits - stealing from the landlords.
 Indicates a temple built in remembrance of Nallathanga and her seven children who committed
suicide because of her sister-in-law.
 Chapter – 2
 Bama indicates her realisation of caste discrimination by seeing an elder brother carrying vadai (fried
snacks) for Naicker without touching it - thinks how her grandparents suffered under them.
 Even school and church sided the upper class.
  College distinguished them - staff asked to stand to register for special tuition.
 After completing B.Ed. worked in a school -- then decided to become nun to serve Dalit children.
 Chapter – III
 - Clash between Parayars and Chaaliyar community for a cemetery when she was 11 years old.
 Chaaliyar community school was there -- they need to convert cemetery to playground. Clashes
between Pallars and Parayars - made upper class to laugh.
 Discuss labour for the low caste people - Naickers land owners and others labourers. Recollects her
grandmother and mother working hard. - Remembers harvesting groundnut corps for just Rs.5 per
day.
 Chapter V
 Recollects childhood games - playing, making dolls, acting... - Tells about the festivals -- New Year
gifts presented to the priest and Mother Superior. - Men prefer to watch movies.
 Chapter VI
 Tell about father in army- had great diet when he comes. Parents have no idea to send her to college -
nun taught her 11 Standard made her to go college.
 She proved herself -- thought have to become teacher - educate Dalits - thought decent education will
give a life of moderate comfort for them. Moved to convent found the reality- even church is not for
them.
 Bama tells her Bhakthi and belief in God. -- Pleased when priest touched her and lifted her up. Nun
told list of sin will be there -- lost respect towards sister as she becomes brutal. Remembers
Chinnamalai church -- Friday prayers - festival during the month of May , Losted her fear and
started to love God - Identified the fake behaviour of church.
 Chapter – VII
 Tells experience in the holy order and the convent she became a nun.
 Bama was forced to serve the rich not the poor as she wished. Served three years in the first place then
transferred five times in a month.
 Chapter IX
 Not even got job in a school as it was run by Nadar Community.
 Catholic schools too not admitted Dalits as they think they will Loose standard.
 Bama concludes that even if she is like a bird with broken wings, she is optimistic about the
future.

 Extra Points:
 Karukku is divided into nine chapters.
 Bama begins the preface by comparing Karukku (palmyra leaves, whose serrated edges make them like
double-edged swords) to her own life.
 The word Karukku also contains the word "karu", which means embryo or seed. So the very oppressive life
that she had to face, carried within the seeds for her literary work.
 Chapter 1
 Our village is very beautiful", Thus begins the first chapter of Karukku.
 The village is not named, nor is the narrator.
 In the very first paragraph she tells us that the village has seen no progress and that there are many different
communities who live there.
 The description of the village cannot escape references to castes and communities because the very names of
various places point our attention to ownership or use by people of different communities.
 End of the chapter with the recounting of a local legend -of a younger sister who is resented by the brother's
wife and who is finally forced to commit suicide along with her seven children when her sister-in-law turned
them all out.
 The brother killed his wife and built a temple for his good younger sister (named Nallathanga meaning
precisely that, good younger sister) and her children. Barma says that the temple exists till date.
 Chapter 2
 Bama mentions untouchability for the first time in the opening sentence of the second chapter.
 She says she saw it in practice and was humiliated by it when she was a young child, walking back from
school. One day when she entered her street she saw that a threshing floor had been set up and the Naicker
was overseeing the work. She saw with amusement an elder from her community walking towards the
 Naicker carrying a small packet of "vadai or green banana bhajji", "holding out the packet by its string,
without touching it"
 The child Bama wanted to laugh at such an antic by an elder, but her elder brother explained to her about
untouchability. It is then that she burst out against caste practice and oppression.
 She recalls that both her grandmothers worked as servants for Naicker families and recounts their routine
humiliations. They worked hard for the Naickers, from dawn till dusk, with almost no reward. Even the food
that they got was leftover food from the Naicker home, food which was given almost as a favour. It is her
elder brother, who was already studying at the university, who educated her about caste practices and exhorted
her to study, demonstrating through his own life that education broke down caste barriers
 Bama shows how prejudices and caste practices are so much a part of the system that lower caste children are
discriminated against almost naturally even in institutions like the school and the church.
 The school and the church sided with the upper castes in their very physical locations in the Nadar Street.
Harijan children, Bama says, were treated as contemptible but used as cheap labour.
 She gives us an anecdote about when she was labelled a thief unjustly, because a coconut had fallen when
they were playing. The headmaster's caste, as a Chaaliyar, becomes important here since the Chaaliyars and
the Parayars (Bama's community) were locked in a battle at the time over a cemetery. Even the priest to whom
she goes for justice, tells her that she must be a thief because she is a Paraya. She says things were no better in
the high school she attended in the neighbouring town.
 The lower caste children were discriminated against and humiliated in very many ways. She found even the
governmental policy of identifying and helping Harijan children as humiliating.
 The only time she found some pride in it was when she was marked out as the best Harijan student in the
district. Even in college, she felt the pricks, especially when a lecturer asked all Scheduled Caste students to
stand and identify themselves since the Government wanted them to have special tuition. She refused this
offer in anger since she felt that this only continued to identify her by caste.
 She found that she gained the respect of her peers and her teachers by studying well. Even when she finished
her B. Ed and joined a (convent) school to teach, she found that the nuns disdained her as well as the Dalit
students who made the majority in the school.
 After five years of teaching, Bama was filled with a desire to become a nun herself in order to help Dalit
children.
 So, she joined an order against the wishes of her family and friends who warned her that caste discrimination
was rampant within the church. Soon enough she realised that there was a disjunction between her and the
order; and that the nuns looked down on Tamilians to begin with and that Tamil Parayas were the lowest of
the low.
 The very first convent that she was sent to, after acceptance into the order, was a shock. Catering to the rich, it
had Dal its doing all the menial jobs and being treated as less than human. Bama was full of anguish because
she could not bring herself to tell the other nuns that she too belonged to a lower caste when she heard them
speak insultingly about lower castes.
 Bama ends the chapter on a poignant and anguished note about the status of Dalits and calls for action to
"crush all these institutions that use caste to bully us into submission", and to bring about a 'Just society where
all are equal" .
 Saadat Hasan Manto: On Ismat
Translation : Shobhana Bhattacharji
 Objective
 Manto, the famous Urdu writer, draws the character sketch of his contemporary writer, Ismat Chughtai
and unravels different facts of her character and art.
 Manto and Chughtai were two renowned fiction writers in Urdu who were contemporaries.
 Their lives touched the lives of many other writers of their generation.
 The prescribed piece of writing, “On Ismat” was written in 1949, and it draws an endearing portrait of the
writer and the individual that she was.
 Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955)
 Saadat Hasan Manto was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author born in Ludhiana, who was active in
British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan.
 Wrote mainly in Urdu.
 He is best known for his stories about the partition of India.
 Manto was tried for obscenity( sexual language or behaviour, especially in books, plays, etc) six times;
thrice before 1947 in British India, and thrice after independence in 1947 in Pakistan, but was never
convicted.
 Saadat Hassan Manto was born in Paproudi village of Samrala, in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab,
India in a Muslim family of barristers on 11 May 1912.
 His father, Khwaja Ghulam Hasan, was a session judge of a local court.
 His mother, Sardar Begum had a Pathan ancestry and was the second wife of his father.
 He received his early education at a Muslim High School at Amritsar where he twice failed his matriculation
examination.
 In 1931 he got admitted to the Hindu Sabha College but dropped out after first year due to poor results.
 The big turning point in his life came in 1933, at age 21, when he met Abdul Bari Alig, a scholar and
polemic writer, who encouraged him to find his true talents and read Russian and French authors.
 Bari also encouraged Manto to translate Victor Hugo's The Last Day of a Condemned Man into Urdu
 He published his first original story in Urdu, Tamasha (Spectacle) under a pseudonym.
 It was based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
 He also edited and translated Russian and French stories for the journals Alamgir and Humayun.
 In 1940 he published his second collection of short stories Manto Ke Afsanay (Stories of Manto).
 In July 1942, he joined as the editor of Musawwir. During this time, he associated with his Aligarh friend
Shaheed Latif and his wife Ismat Chughtai.
 After Partition Manto went to Pakistan.
 Manto had suffered public trials for writing obscene literature in the newly created and increasingly
Islamized Pakistan.
 Manto's trial ended with a warning from Sessions Judge Munir that he was being let off easy with just a fine
but would be sent to jail for many years if he did not stop writing his provocative Short Stories.
 Manto sank into a depression. He tried to alleviate his depression with alcohol and this started affecting his
liver and led to cirrhosis of liver with him vomiting blood.
 He died on 18 January 1955, His death was attributed to the effects of alcoholism.
 Writings
  Manto strongly opposed the partition of India.
 He started his literary career translating the works of Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde and Russian writers such as
Chekhov and Gorky.
 His first story was "Tamasha", based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar.
 Selected Works by Manto Collections of Short Stories
 Atish Pare (1935)
 Manto ke Afsaane (1940)
 Dhuan (1941)
 Afsaane aur Drame (1943)
 Chughad (1948)
 Lazzat-e Sang (1934)
 Siyah Hashiye (1948)
 Khali Botalein, Khali Dibbe (1950)
 Nimrud ki Khudai (1950)
 Thanda Gosht (1950)
 Parde ke Peechhe (1953)
 Plays
 Aao (1940)
 Manto ke Drame (1940)
 Janaze (1942)
 Tin Auratein (1942)
 Saadat Hasan Manto: On Ismat: Summary
 ON ISMAT CHUGHTAI SKETCH
 Introducing the genre of pen-sketch: Drawing pen-sketches is an interesting genre in Urdu literature.
 It combines biographical details, personal eccentricities with interesting anecdotes of daily life to draw a fuller
and more intimate portrait of a writer or a celebrity than mere biographical facts can ever do.
 “On lsmat” (original title in Urdu is, "Ismat Chughtai") is a pen portrait of one of Urdu's most celebrated
writers, - Ismat Chughtai.
 Ismat Chughtai was born on 21 August 1915 in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh.
 Chughtai's father was a civil servant; she spent her childhood in cities including Jodhpur, Agra, and
Aligarh.
 lsmat Chughtai’s famous work-Tiny 's Granny.
 Short stories
 Dheet, a soliloquy
 Kafir, her first short story
 Lihaaf, 1942
 Short story collections
 Kaliyan, 1941
 Ek Baat, 1945
 Chhui Mui, 1952
 Do Haath, 1955
 Badan ki Khushboo, 1979
 Thori si Paagal, 1979
 Novels
 Ziddi, 1941
 Tehri Lakeer, 1943
 Saudai, 1964
 Ajeeb Aadmi, 1970
 Plays
 Fasadi, 1938
 Intikhab, 1939
 Tanhai ka Zehr, 1977 [3]
 Manto and Chughtai had a lot in common:
 Both were associated with the film industry, both were rebels at heart and delighted in shocking people.
 Both were progressives" who had serious conflicts with the more inflexible and orthodox members of the
Progressive Writers.
 Both were accused of obscenity and taken to court. It is because of this similarity that many people
expected them to be married to each other.
 When Manto left for Pakistan at the time of Partition, Chughtai felt it was no· less than a betrayal on his
part of their friendship and of the principles and values they lived by.
 She records this sense of betrayal and hurt in the pen-sketch of Manto, "Mera Dost Mera Dushman"
( 1960), that she wrote several years after Manto wrote hers.
 Pen-sketch "lsmat Chughtai" which was originally written in Urdu, in English translation. The translator
of the piece is Shobhana Bhattacharji.
 Manto has been able to present lsmat Chughtai vividly before us with all the dominant traits of her
personality.
 Manto is honest enough to bring out the contradictions in Ismat Chughtai’s character, and in doing so he
points to such contradictions in his own character as well.
 Manto takes quite a bit of space in discussing the finer points of Chughtai's fictional art and the essential
ingredients of that art.
 In the first part of the sketch Manto compares his own art with the art of Ismat Chughtai.
 Manto shows a strong feeling through textual illustrations from Chughtai’s works as well as those of his
own.
 Then he goes on to explore how she demonstrates her ability to get into the depth of the female psyche
and express their innermost feelings.
 Manto believed that Chughtai had a natural talent for storytelling but she lacked art or craft.
 According to Manto, Chughtai’s strength lies in the fact that she writes about the intimate and personal
experiences of women, and they ring true and authentic because as a woman she has natural insights into
those experiences.
 Manto refutes the charges levelled by them against Chughtai and stoutly defends her right to write the
way she wanted to.
 The style used in the sketch can also be called autobiographical. because while talking about Ismat
Chughtai, Manto reveals quite a bit of his own life and his own art. The reader gets to know as much
about him a's about Chughtai. He discusses his own writings alongside those of Chughtai in the earlier
part of the sketch to highlight both commonality and difference in their art.
 What he tries to do in On Ismat is to present Ismat Chughtai with all her strength and warts. He highlights
the remarkable qualities of her work, but at the same time draws attention to the lack of formal
sophistication in her art.
 He describes her stubbornness, her unconventional nature, her eccentricities, and above all her deep
interest in life and the people around her.
 You may have also noticed the fact that Manto cannot resist the opportunity to talk about himself or his
writings. Though his central subject here is Ismat Chughtai, he manages to talk about himself and his art
quite a lot.
 Whatever his virtues as a person and as a writer, self-effacement is not one of them. He comes out as an
egoist with a tendency to self-praise.
 Umaprasad Mukhopadhyay (October 12, 1902 – October 12, 1997)
 Umaprasad was a prominent Indian Bengali writer whose main focus was the travelogue, one of the genres of
Bengali literature.
 in 1971 for his travelogue Manimhesh He won the Sahitya Akademi Award.
 Umaprasad was born on 12th October 1902 on Vijayadashmi day in Bhavanipur area of Kolkata.
 His father was the renowned educationist Bengal Tiger Ashutosh Mukherjee and his mother was Yogamaya
Devi.
 Born on Vijayadashami, his nickname was Biju.
 Umaprasad looked very beautiful as a child, but He was not in good physical health; He was infected with typhoid
at the age of 5 years.
 From childhood, the author was a brilliant, introverted, animal lover and compassionate person.
 An account of his childhood can be found in his essay "My Childhood".
 He started studying law and in 1928 he secured seventh rank in the first division of the BL examination.
 Worked as a lawyer in the Supreme Court in his early life. Later, he taught at Calcutta University Law College for
twenty long years.
 Apart from travel and studies, he also had a special passion for sports. He was associated with the Bengal Lawn
Tennis Association and was a tennis player himself.
 He is the founder of India's first mountaineering organization 'Himalayan Association'. He was a life member
of "Himalayan Mountaineering Institute" and 'Himalayan Club' of Darjeeling. Apart from sports, he also
excelled in music.
 Travellers
 Umaprasad was a tireless traveller. At the beginning of his youth, in 1928, he went on his first Himalayan
darshan with Mother Goddess.
 Then this ungrateful traveller wandered the Himalayan path for a long time - wearing an ocher fatwa and a
lungi, with a jhola on his shoulder.
 Later, Gahan wandered in the jungle, in the rough desert, and travelled on the sea as a passenger in a boat.
 He had deep knowledge in painting and cinematography.
 Apart from innumerable stills, he made a film of the Kailash-Manas Sarovar journey in 1934 AD.
 His photo album 'Alokchitre Himalaya' taken between 1928 and 1970 is an invaluable document of the
geographical features of the Himalayas of that time.
 Literary works
 List of published books
 Ganges descent (1362)
 Kalindi Canal(1361)
 On the way to the Himalayas (1361)
 Those are my colorful days (1361)
 His other books are-
 'Manimhesh'
 'Dudhwa'
 'Panchkedar'
 'water journey'
 'Kaveri Story'
 'Vaishnodevi and Other Stories'
 Awards
 For his travel book "Manimhesh" In 1971, he won the Sahitya Akademi Award.

 Manimahesh
 It is a prose text that represented a different genre and travelogues have always drawn readers, as they
generally combine documentary data, topical information and autobiographical impressions.
 The first-hand experience of the traveller.
 In Manimahesh, we find very interesting descriptions of the Himalayan hill tribes, especially a
description of the Gaddis and the Kinnors and Kinnoris.
 This book has an immense value as resource material for researchers, anthropologists, Himalayan
trekkers and casual readers.
 The excerpt in meg-14 is about travelling through the Chamba region of Himachal Pradesh.
 It is a creative piece on travel from a book-length travelogue which was not originally written in English but
Bengali, and is therefore significant as a translated text also.
 The translation is by Sanjukta Das Gupta.
 The full travelogue is in three parts, and deals with the author's trek over the Himalayas. The first part has
14 sub-sections, of which sections 8, 9, 10 and 11 are in your course.
 The first part describes the journey from Pathankot to the foot of Manimahesh by the side of a picturesque
lake.
 The second part describes the journey from Khara Pathar towards Chakrata, a high cantonment area over
the Jumna valley.
 The third part has him starting from Masobra on the outskirts of Simla and after passing through some
legendary mountain villages, he reaches the foot of the 22,000 high Kinnor Kailas, resembling the phallic
image of Lord Shiva.
 The eighth section of the first part has the writer and Himadri walking from Kharamukh, and reaching the
village of Lahul. They encounter a schoolmaster, and a shopkeeper who initially refuses to part with the
bhutta growing outside his shop in fear of a local superstition.
 They reach Varmore, the gateway to Manimahesh, where the reader's curiosity is tantalized by the description
of a sadhu who is supervising the repair of a farmland, and yet is not conscious of the power he wields.
 Section 9 describes their meeting with the Range officer Sood, who invites them to sleep for the night in his
bungalow instead of carrying on to the Forest bungalow. He introduces them to the local doctor Chatterjee,
who lives a reclusive and enigmatic existence. They interact with the doctor about common landmarks in
Calcutta as well as shared historical signposts.
 Section 10 narrates well-known stories about the Sadhu, Naga Baba, which have become part of the local
lore.
 Section 11 further explores the history, myth and legend surrounding the hallowed site of Manimahesh. The
Map will help you to imagine and identify the route to Manimahesh.
 Umaprasad Mukhopadhay's travelogues are available in Bengali in five volumes called Bhraman Omnibus,
published by Mitra & Ghosh between· I 983 and 1993.
 Listed below are some of his major travel writings, although he has also written biographies, essays on
the freedom movement' and two volumes ofautobiogaphical reminiscences:
 Himalayer Pathe Pathe (On the tracks of the Himalayas) 1962
 Gangabartan (Circling the Ganga) 1966
 Kuyari Giripathe (On the Mountainous Paths.of Kuyari) 1967
 Manimahesh -1969
 Triloknather Pat he (En Route to Triloknath) - 1971
 Gupteshwar (Secret Deity) 1974
 Sherpa-der Deshe (In the Land of the Sherpas) 1974
 Muktinath Panchakedar -1975
 Kailash o Manas Sarobar (Kailash and Mansarovar) 1977
 Afridi Mulluke (In the Kingdom of the Africans) -1976
 Kaberi Kahini (The Story of Kaveri) 1979
 Baishnodebi o Anyanya Kahini (Vaishnodevi and Other Stories) -1979
 Alochhayar Pat he (A Passage Through Light and Shadows) 1985
 Dui Diganta (Two Horizons) 1986 .
 Jaljatra (Travels through Waterways) -1989
 Arabsagarer Tirey (On the Banks of the Arbian Sea) -1992